El Sistema de Protección Social Universal de El Salvador: posibilidades para la articulación de sus componentes

El gobierno de El Salvador está elaborando los ejercicios de planificación requeridos en el sector de la protección social para orientar las políticas y programas sociales durante la presente administración. Entre tales ejercicios destacan el Plan Quinquenal de Desarrollo (PQD) y el Plan de Desarrollo Social, en el contexto de los mandatos de la Ley de Desarrollo y Protección Social (LDPS), entre otras disposiciones legales. A solicitud y en contacto con la Secretaría Técnica de la Presidencia, se ha solicitado la elaboración de un estudio que partiendo de los mandatos, objetivos y acciones previstas, analice los desafíos y oportunidades para la articulación de los pilares contributivo y no contributivo del actual Sistema de Protección Social Universal (SPSU), y señale recomendaciones o posibles líneas de acción para avanzar hacia una mayor articulación. Precisamente, el gran reto de la protección social en El Salvador pareciera estar en la efectiva articulación de los pilares contributivo y no contributivo, en otras palabras en cómo lograr que los participantes del segundo pasen a formar parte del primero y aporten a su sostenimiento al insertarse en un mercado laboral que les pudiera ofrecer condiciones dignas y la posibilidad de una pensión.

Programa de complementação de renda Bolsa-Família: política de Estado ou política de governo?

Este artigo apresenta uma avaliação política da concepção e da formulação de uma política social, cuja estratégia prioritária são os programas de transferência monetária. Nesse sentido, esta pesquisa objetiva explicitar o delineamento de uma política de renda mínima no Brasil e toma como referência o processo de unificação dos programas de garantia de renda existentes na realidade brasileira em torno do programa Bolsa-Família. Este trabalho pretende também investigar a existência ou não de um conceito de necessidades no debate contemporâneo sobre renda mínima e a adoção desse conceito nas atuais políticas sociais brasileiras de distribuição de renda.

Bolsa família em Ananindeua: estudo de caso de devolução do benefício

O presente estudo objetiva compreender o fenômeno da devolução voluntária à transferência de renda condicionada “Bolsa Família”. Tal estudo tem como base a teoria crítico-dialética,utiliza as categorias de Política social, Assistência social, emancipação/autonomia, cidadania, transferência de renda e pobreza. O método adotado é o dialético, a partir do qual se adotará o estudo de caso com entrevistas em profundidade. Os dados obtidos foram tratados através de análise de conteúdo com que consiste em “uma técnica de investigação que tem por finalidade a descrição objetiva, sistemática e quantitativa do conteúdo manifesto da comunicação” a partir de procedimentos sistemáticos e objetivos de descrição do conteúdo das mensagens, indicadores (quantitativos ou não) que permitam a inferência de conhecimentos relativos às condições de produção/recepção (variáveis inferidas) dessas mensagens e os aspectos quantitativos do método. O Programa Bolsa Família trouxe benefícios ao público alvo, o volume de informações não deixa dúvidas, porém os casos estudados indicam que a devolução do benefício deste Programa não se deu de forma espontânea, mas estimulada, sem que os beneficiários estivessem efetivamente emancipados.Assim, não houve desistência voluntária e sim bloqueio, orientação e saída induzida. Algumas famílias foram detectadas pelo sistema do programa e foram automaticamente bloqueadas, por estarem fora do padrão de renda para continuar recebendo o benefício; outras foram detectadas no momento do recadastramento.Quanto a esse desligamento, o posicionamento das pessoas entrevistadas se dividiu entre aqueles que entendiam que ainda precisavam muito do benefício para continuar o melhoramento de suas vidas; e aqueles que, mesmo não tenham pedido o desligamento de forma espontânea à coordenação do programa, concordaram com os procedimentos institucionais realizados, por entenderem que outras pessoas mais necessitadas precisam da oportunidade gerada por essa política.

A participação na política de assistência social

Nosso objetivo neste artigo é discutir a institucionalização da participação nas políticas sociais, procurando identifi car como a participação da sociedade civil se insere na política social e qual sua infl uência sobre o processo decisório. Nossa análise tem como foco a Política de Assistência Social e sua proposta participativa via conselhos de políticas públicas. A pesquisa sobre o Conselho Municipal de Assistência Social de Araraquara procurou mostrar os entraves e avanços desta política na esfera municipal.

Um estudo da recente transformação na estrutura social do Brasil: nova classe média?

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

As condições de vida dos assentados da região de Andradina: a realidade e os indicadores de avaliação da política pública de reforma agrária

Pós-graduação em Serviço Social - FCHS

Dossiê campo de públicas no Brasil: definição, movimento constitutivo e desafios atuais

This article introduces the Public’s Field, which brings together teachers and students of undergraduate courses in Public Administration, Public Management, Public Policy, Public Management and Social Policy in Brazil, around the republican and democratic ethos as values, and multidisciplinary approach as proposed construction of knowledge. Based on a literature review, documental analysis, and especially in participant observation of the authors as actors in the construction Field, the article is per se a dossier. It starts with the definition of the Field and describes - in detail - their constituent movement in the last 12 years, culminating in the approval of the National Curriculum Guidelines of Public Administration in 2013. The text shows the achievement and growth of Field in the country before the growing supply of undergraduate courses, stimulated by upgrading and expansion of the public sector. Finally, we list some challenges, concerning the process of institutionalization and identity.

Campo de públicas no Brasil: definição, movimento constitutivo e desafios atuais

This article introduces the Public’s Field, which brings together teachers and students of undergraduate courses in Public Administration, Public Management, Public Policy, Public Management and Social Policy in Brazil, around the republican and democratic ethos as values, and multidisciplinary approach as proposed construction of knowledge. Based on a literature review, documental analysis, and especially in participant observation of the authors as actors in the construction Field, the article is per se a dossier. It starts with the definition of the Field and describes - in detail - their constituent movement in the last 12 years, culminating in the approval of the National Curriculum Guidelines of Public Administration in 2013. The text shows the achievement and growth of Field in the country before the growing supply of undergraduate courses, stimulated by upgrading and expansion of the public sector. Finally, we list some challenges, concerning the process of institutionalization and identity.

Tradition, Change and Variation : Past and Present Trends in Public Old-age Care

The general aim of this dissertation is to describe and analyse how public old-age care in Sweden has developed and changed during the last century. The study applies a provider perspective on how care has been planned and professionally carried out. A broader social policy perspective, studying old-age care at central/national as well as local/municipal level, is also developed. A special focus is directed at the large local variation in care and services for the elderly. The empirical base is comprised of official documents and other public sources, survey data from interviews with elderly recipients of public old-age care, and official statistics on publicly financed and controlled old-age care and services. Study I addresses the development of old-age care in Sweden during the twentieth century by studying an important occupation in this field – the supervisors and their professional roles, tasks and working conditions. Throughout, the roles of supervisors have followed the prevailing official policy on the proper way to provide care for elderly people in Sweden; from poor relief at the beginning of the 1900s, via a generous level of services in the 1960s and 1970s, to today’s restricted and economy-controlled mode of operation. Study II describes and compares two main forms of public old-age care in Sweden today, home help services and institutional care. The care-load found in home-based care was comparable to and sometimes even larger than in service-homes and other institutions, indicating that large care needs among elderly people in Sweden today can be met in their homes as well as in institutional settings. Studies III and IV analyse the local variation in public old-age care in Sweden. During the last decades there has been an overall decline in home help services. The coverage of home help for elderly people shows large differences between municipalities throughout this period, and the relative variation has increased. The local disparity seems to depend more on historical factors, e.g., previous coverage rates, than on the present municipal situation in levels of need or local economy and politics. In an introductory part the four papers are linked together by an outline of the demographic situation and the social policy model for old-age care in Sweden. Trends that have been apparent over time, e.g. professionalisation and market orientation, are traced and discussed. Conflicts between prevailing ideologies are analysed, in regards to for instance home-based and institution-based care, social and medical culture, and local and central levels of decision-making. ’Welfare municipality’, ‘path dependency’, and ‘decentralisation’ are suggested as a conceptual framework for describing the large and increasing local variations in old-age care. Finally, implications of the four studies with regard to old-age care policy and further research are discussed.

The Emergence of the Post-Socialist Welfare State - The Case of the Baltic States : Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

This dissertation takes a step towards providing a better understanding of post-socialist welfare state development from a theoretical as well as an empirical perspective. The overall analytical goal of this thesis has been to critically assess the development of social policies in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania using them as illustrative examples of post-socialist welfare state development in the light of the theories, approaches and typologies that have been developed to study affluent capitalist democracies. The four studies included in this dissertation aspire to a common aim in a number of specific ways. The first study tries to place the ideal-typical welfare state models of the Baltic States within the well-known welfare state typologies. At the same time, it provides a rich overview of the main social security institutions in the three countries by comparing them with each other and with the previous structures of the Soviet period. It examines the social insurance institutions of the Baltic States (old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, short-term benefits, sickness, maternity and parental insurance and family benefits) with respect to conditions of eligibility, replacement rates, financing and contributions. The findings of this study indicate that the Latvian social security system can generally be labelled as a mix of the basic security and corporatist models. The Estonian social security system can generally also be characterised as a mix of the basic security and corporatist models, even if there are some weak elements of the targeted model in it. It appears that the institutional changes developing in the social security system of Lithuania have led to a combination of the basic security and targeted models of the welfare state. Nevertheless, as the example of the three Baltic States shows, there is diversity in how these countries solve problems within the field of social policy. In studying the social security schemes in detail, some common features were found that could be attributed to all three countries. Therefore, the critical analysis of the main social security institutions of the Baltic States in this study gave strong supporting evidence in favour of identifying the post-socialist regime type that is already gaining acceptance within comparative welfare state research. Study Two compares the system of social maintenance and insurance in the Soviet Union, which was in force in the three Baltic countries before their independence, with the currently existing social security systems. The aim of the essay is to highlight the forces that have influenced the transformation of the social policy from its former highly universal, albeit authoritarian, form, to the less universal, social insurance-based systems of present-day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This study demonstrates that the welfare–economy nexus is not the only important factor in the development of social programs. The results of this analysis revealed that people's attitudes towards distributive justice and the developmental level of civil society also play an important part in shaping social policies. The shift to individualism in people’s mentality and the decline of the labour movement, or, to be more precise, the decline in trade union membership and influence, does nothing to promote the development of social rights in the Baltic countries and hinders the expansion of social policies. The legacy of the past has been another important factor in shaping social programs. It can be concluded that social policy should be studied as if embedded not only in the welfare-economy nexus, but also in the societal, historical and cultural nexus of a given society. Study Three discusses the views of the state elites on family policy within a wider theoretical setting covering family policy and social policy in a broader sense and attempts to expand this analytical framework to include other post-socialist countries. The aim of this essay is to explore the various views of the state elites in the Baltics concerning family policy and, in particular, family benefits as one of the possible explanations for the observed policy differences. The qualitative analyses indicate that the Baltic States differ significantly with regard to the motives behind their family policies. Lithuanian decision-makers seek to reduce poverty among families with children and enhance the parents’ responsibility for bringing up their children. Latvian policy-makers act so as to increase the birth rate and create equal opportunities for children from all families. Estonian policy-makers seek to create equal opportunities for all children and the desire to enhance gender equality is more visible in the case of Estonia in comparison with the other two countries. It is strongly arguable that there is a link between the underlying motives and the kinds of family benefits in a given country. This study, thus, indicates how intimately the attitudes of the state bureaucrats, policy-makers, political elite and researchers shape social policy. It confirms that family policy is a product of the prevailing ideology within a country, while the potential influence of globalisation and Europeanisation is detectable too. The final essay takes into account the opinions of welfare users and examines the performances of the institutionalised family benefits by relying on the recipients’ opinions regarding these benefits. The opinions of the populations as a whole regarding government efforts to help families are compared with those of the welfare users. Various family benefits are evaluated according to the recipients' satisfaction with those benefits as well as the contemporaneous levels of subjective satisfaction with the welfare programs related to the absolute level of expenditure on each program. The findings of this paper indicate that, in Latvia, people experience a lower level of success regarding state-run family insurance institutions, as compared to those in Lithuania and Estonia. This is deemed to be because the cash benefits for families and children in Latvia are, on average, seen as marginally influencing the overall financial situation of the families concerned. In Lithuania and Estonia, the overwhelming majority think that the family benefit systems improve the financial situation of families. It appears that recipients evaluated universal family benefits as less positive than targeted benefits. Some universal benefits negatively influenced the level of general satisfaction with the family benefits system provided in the countries being researched. This study puts forward a discussion about whether universalism is always more legitimate than targeting. In transitional economies, in which resources are highly constrained, some forms of universal benefits could turn out to be very expensive in relative terms, without being seen as useful or legitimate forms of help to families. In sum, by closely examining the different aspects of social policy, this dissertation goes beyond the over-generalisation of Eastern European welfare state development and, instead, takes a more detailed look at what is really going on in these countries through the examples of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. In addition, another important contribution made by this study is that it revives ‘western’ theoretical knowledge through ‘eastern’ empirical evidence and provides the opportunity to expand the theoretical framework for post-socialist societies.

Public Attitudes Toward Social Spending in the United States: The Differences Between Direct Spending and Tax Expenditures

This paper uses a survey experiment to examine differences in public attitudes toward 'direct' and 'indirect' government spending. Federal social welfare spending in the USA has two components: the federal government spends money to directly provide social benefits to citizens, and also indirectly subsidizes the private provision of social benefits through tax expenditures. Though benefits provided through tax expenditures are considered spending for budgetary purposes, they differ from direct spending in several ways: in the mechanisms through which benefits are delivered to citizens, in how they distribute wealth across the income spectrum, and in the visibility of their policy consequences to the mass public. We develop and test a model explaining how these differences will affect public attitudes toward spending conducted through direct and indirect means. We find that support for otherwise identical social programs is generally higher when such programs are portrayed as being delivered through tax expenditures than when they are portrayed as being delivered by direct spending. In addition, support for tax expenditure programs which redistribute wealth upward drops when citizens are provided information about the redistributive effects. Both of these results are conditioned by partisanship, with the opinions of Republicans more sensitive to the mechanism through which benefits are delivered, and the opinions of Democrats more sensitive to information about their redistributive effects.

Evaluating Integration. Research contributions for a gender sensitive migration policy: Research contributions for a gender sensitive migration policy

The integration of academic and non-academic knowledge is a key concern for researchers who aim at bridging the gap between research and policy. Researchers involved in the sustainability-oriented NCCR North-South programme have made the experience that linking different types of knowledge requires time and effort, and that methodologies are still lacking. One programme component was created at the inception of this transdisciplinary research programme to support exchange between researchers, development practitioners and policymakers. After 8 years of research, the programme is assessing whether research has indeed enabled a continuous communication across and beyond academic boundaries and has effected changes in the public policies of poor countries. In a first review of the data, we selected two case studies explicitly addressing the lives of women. In both cases – one in Pakistan, the other in Nepal – the dialogue between researchers and development practitioners contributed to important policy changes for female migration. In both countries, outmigration has become an increasingly important livelihood strategy. National migration policies are gendered, limiting the international migration of women. In Nepal, women were not allowed to migrate to specific countries such as the Gulf States or Malaysia. This was done in the name of positive discrimination, to protect women from potential exploitation and harassment in domestic work. However, women continued to migrate in many other and often illegal and more risky ways, increasing their vulnerability. In Pakistan, female labour migration was not allowed at all and male migration increased the vulnerability of the families remaining back home. Researchers and development practitioners in Nepal and Pakistan brought women’s shared experience of and exposure to the mechanisms of male domination into the public debate, and addressed the discriminating laws. Now, for the first time in Pakistan, the new draft policy currently under discussion would enable broadly-based female labour migration. What can we learn from the two case studies with regard to ways of relating experience- and research-based knowledge? The paper offers insights into the sequence of interactions between researchers, local people, development practitioners, and policy-makers, which eventually contributed to the formulation of a rights-based migration policy. The reflection aims at exploring the gendered dimension of ways to co-produce and share knowledge for development across boundaries. Above all, it should help researchers to better tighten the links between the spheres of research and policy in future.

Social Learning Processes in Swiss Soil Protection? The 'From Farmer - To Farmer' Project

Social learning approaches have become a prominent focus in studies related to sustainable agriculture. In order to better understand the potential of social learning for more sustainable development, the present study assessed the processes, effects and facilitating elements of interaction related to social learning in the context of Swiss soil protection and the innovative ‘From Farmer - To Farmer’ project. The study reveals that social learning contributes to fundamental transformations of patterns of interactions. However, the study also demonstrates that a learning-oriented understanding of sustainable development implies including analysis of the institutional environments in which the organizations of the individual representatives of face-to-face-based social learning processes are operating. This has shown to be a decisive element when face-to-face-based learning processes of the organisations’ representatives are translated into organisational learning. Moreover, the study revealed that this was achieved not directly through formalisation of new lines of institutionalised cooperation but by establishing links in a ‘boundary space’ trying out new forms of collaboration, aiming at social learning and co-production of knowledge. It is argued that further research on social learning processes should give greater emphasis to this intermediary level of ‘boundary spaces’.